Sapolsky
A documentary that was shown and produced by the National Geographic, played a phenomenal one hour video about Dr. Sapolskys research. Dr. Sapolsky is a neuroendocrinologist who dedicated his life in his efforts to study stress and the issues that are caused by it. Sapolsky conducted his research in Kenya, where he would consistently visit baboons in the wilderness of Africa as he examined primates who are under stress despite of the fact that they are not experiencing stress that is threatening their survival. Ironically, humans are not that much different from the baboons that Sapolsky observed in terms of the stress they’re under despite the fact that there’s no real significant reason for it. A potential problem that people are not aware
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Individuals who are at the bottom of the hierarchy who are subordinate, were under a significant amount of stress compared to the individuals who were ranked on top of the hierarchy also type A, more dominant types. To be specific, lower ranked individuals developed health problems such as high blood pressure, their life expectancy was much lower and their health overall was poor. Sapolsky explained it in terms of homeostasis – which refers to a state of balance. Since stress is known to disrupt an individual’s equilibrium and homeostasis, your body is no longer ideally distributing and maintaining normal levels of glucose in your system or functioning appropriately within its norm. The difference is the discrepancy in human ability to shut off the stress response system which is activated by anticipating negative thoughts and outcomes about future events. The problem becomes when this negative anticipation becomes a chronic pattern which tricks your body into thinking you it’s time to turn on the stress response to help you cope. The same stress response that a zebra is under in the wilderness as its either trying to run away from its predators or protect themselves from potential danger, is the same stress human beings are under purely from psychosocial reasons. Just as the stress response evolved millions of years ago, it evolved once again in humans and brought forth by short term
Individuals who are at the bottom of the hierarchy who are subordinate, were under a significant amount of stress compared to the individuals who were ranked on top of the hierarchy also type A, more dominant types. To be specific, lower ranked individuals developed health problems such as high blood pressure, their life expectancy was much lower and their health overall was poor. Sapolsky explained it in terms of homeostasis – which refers to a state of balance. Since stress is known to disrupt an individual’s equilibrium and homeostasis, your body is no longer ideally distributing and maintaining normal levels of glucose in your system or functioning appropriately within its norm. The difference is the discrepancy in human ability to shut off the stress response system which is activated by anticipating negative thoughts and outcomes about future events. The problem becomes when this negative anticipation becomes a chronic pattern which tricks your body into thinking you it’s time to turn on the stress response to help you cope. The same stress response that a zebra is under in the wilderness as its either trying to run away from its predators or protect themselves from potential danger, is the same stress human beings are under purely from psychosocial reasons. Just as the stress response evolved millions of years ago, it evolved once again in humans and brought forth by short term